At movie theaters and other entertainment venues, such as stadiums and the like, the rapid and efficient dispensation of foods and beverages is required because consumers are usually purchasing such products during intermission or other temporary disruptions of the show or event that is being or to be viewed. A particularly popular food product to be consumed at such venues is popcorn, and fresh serving hot, tasty popcorn to a large number of consumers in a rapid and efficient manner presents a difficult problem for counter attendants. Often only one or two persons attend the counter while many more are present to be served.
One way to facilitate distribution of the product is to pop the corn and package it prior to the onset of the crowds, so that the packaged product can be rapidly dispensed when necessary. One problem here is that if done too early, the popcorn will not be as warm and tasty as freshly popped corn. In order to pop the corn, however, present commercial devices require the attendant to feed the corn, salt and oil into the kettle before each batch can be popped.
There are different types of kettle designs which are used. One type has the support structure below the base of the kettle. The bowl is generally held in the operative position by a return spring, and is emptied by the attendant's manipulation of a side handle. If the attendant is not careful, however, the pivoting return motion of the bowl can be so hard and fast as to bounce upon and damage its supports. A solution to this problem is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,173.
Another design utilizes a ceiling mounting system for the kettle, with the handle and a spring lock positioned on the side of the housing. For either design, after the corn is fully popped, the attendant must move the handle to tilt the kettle to empty the popped corn therefrom. This diverts the attendant's time and effort to operation of the kettle for properly producing the product rather than serving the consumers.
Regardless of the design used, cooking oil needed for corn popping must be introduced into the popping bowl. Cooking oil distribution is a particular problem with prior devices. The oil is generally preheated to nearly popping temperature and then conventionally conducted through an inverted J-shaped tube and allowed to fall into the popping bowl. Since popping bowls generally must be covered to contain the energetically popping corn, an oil passage through the lid must be provided. This conventional design, involving hot oil falling towards a restricted passage through the popping bowl lid, first, exposes the hot oil to air. This is undesirable as it leads to various types of avoidable oil contamination. Second, if even slight misalignment of the oil tube and the oil passage in the lid occurs, hot oil will spill down the sides of the heated bowl. Since bowls are conventionally electrically heated, spilled oil may be a fire hazard. In any case, the hot oil will oxidize on the bowl to create an unsightly residue difficult to clean. Thus, such spillage is both a possible fire safety hazard and an immediate cleaning problem. Access to these surfaces for routine daily cleaning of these surfaces is difficult. Cleaning requires extra operator attention.
A fully automated system has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,035,173. While this system is satisfactory for many applications, the use of vacuum is noisy and the introduction of corn, salt, and oil into the kettle is not precise. Thus, there remains a need for an improved system for automating the production of popcorn and for providing cooking oil into the kettle.